


Past is Present

by lena-in-a-red-dress (CSIGurlie07)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Anastasia AU, F/F, based on the broadway version, inaccurate historical au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23986537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CSIGurlie07/pseuds/lena-in-a-red-dress
Summary: A supercorp anastasia au plot bunny, starring Kara as Anastasia and Lena as Demetri. Based on the broadway version of the tale.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Past is Present

I have more than one Anastasia supercorp AU, of varying levels of historical accuracy, but this one is mirrored against the Broadway musical, and casts Kara as the youngest and much celebrated daughter of the ruling family, though her much younger cousin Kal is the heir.

Lena is the bastard daughter of a disgraced count, who died shortly after her birth, leaving behind a disgraced wife and son who soon spearheads the communist movement. Though the family’s disgrace was a reasonable response to the unethical and horrific experiments Lionel conducted, his heir Lex holds a grudge against the royal family for his sudden change in circumstances. He calls for their removal, with violence if necessary, and is brilliant and charismatic enough to soon rise through the ranks until he is the head and face of the revolution.

After her mother dies in Lena’s early childhood, Lena grows up on the streets, hungry but smart and resourceful, causing no harm but taking no shit. She doesn’t know her half-brother, but Lex recognizes her easily– she is the spitting image of the family’s former chambermaid, and what parts of Lena are not her mother are all Lionel.

But Lex keeps the knowledge to himself, and remains a mysterious and ominous figure in Lena’s life, the majority of which sees the societal and cultural upheaval following the abdication and eventual execution of the royal family, which plays out much like the Romanoff’s. It’s presumed that most of the family perished, save for the Grand Duchess Astra and her husband Non, who were abroad at the time of the coup, and now remain in exile.

But one child survived– Kara.

With no memory and no clue to her past save for a pendant around her neck and the jagged scars left by the bullets that nearly killed her, Kara works relentlessly to survive a treacherous regime until she can cross a border– any border– and find a new life elsewhere.

In her journey she meets Lena, now a woman endeavoring to escape Russia for Paris, where she and her best friend Jack Spheer hope to attend a prestigious university and study science. They earn money by facilitating forged papers and visas, constantly vigilant of the Red Army and the threat of being outed by neighbors just as desperate to survive.

Kara goes to them in the hopes of finally escaping the country, only to learn that the army has recently updated their visas to be counterfeit-proof– Jack and Lena no longer have the means or technology to manufacture fakes. The only way to get visas now would be to bribe an official into giving them blank ones, which Lena and Jack aren’t averse to, but would leave them too destitute to enroll in university once they reached Paris.

But Lena and Jack are both giant softies, and when Kara tells them her tale, they search for a way to help. Then Jack gets an idea: the Grand Duchess Astra has long offered a reward for the return of her niece. If they can pass Kara off as the lost princess, the reward would more than make up for the cost of the visas, and would get them all out of the country.

Lena is hesitant at first– it’s too risky, and–

“There’s no proof that she isn’t! Look at her! She is the spitting image!”

There’s no denying that. Lena often finds herself staring at their new friend, as though she’d somehow recognize her if she gives just one more look.

“And you know everything there is to know about court life,” Jack continues, sensing Lena’s imminent relent. “And honestly– even if we don’t have the money to go to university, at least we’ll be out of here.”

Ultimately, Lena agrees to the plan, out of desperation more than anything else. So does Kara. The next year passes in a blur of working/stealing for enough money to cover the extra visa fee, and an endless stream of memorization of names, faces, and etiquettes.

Somewhere in the mix, Lex gets wind that Lena is in the final push to leave– he starts to take an interest, and offers her a job. Lena resists at first, but accepts when Lex’s offer turns dangerous and the money he offers is enough to get them out in half the time. Lex doesn’t know about Kara or their ultimate plan to abscond with her, and believes that he has Lena under control.

It’s not until Lena fails to show up to work one day that Lex learns the truth about everything– that Lena had been using him as deftly as he’d believed he used her, that she’d found a claimant to the throne, and that she intended to return her to her rightful place. He goes after them himself, enraged by Lena’s gall and the risk Kara poses to his position and that of his regime. He strikes out with the intention of bringing Lena home– and to kill the imposter who would be princess.

Meanwhile, as the trio travels out of Russia towards France, Jack starts to suspect two things: that Kara is more than she seems, and that Lena is entirely taken with her. Kara remembers things– not true memories, but she draws on information she shouldn’t know. Names and details that no one has told her.

By the time they reach Paris, it’s easy to convince Astra’s lady-in-waiting Cat Grant of their suspected truth.

“Not just because of your uncanny resemblance and exhaustive knowledge, which we all know can be fabricated,” the sharp woman delivers, eyeing Kara with a cool gaze before turning her gaze on Lena. “But because of you.”

Lena stiffens abruptly. “W-what do you mean?”

Cat lifts an arch brow, but ultimately obfuscates. “That’s a conversation for another time,” she says. “Astra no longer receives prospective claimants, but should a cultured party such as yourselves wishes to meet her, she will be found at the ballet in two nights’ time. Should you also find yourselves there, I can arrange an introduction.”

That night, Kara suffers a violent nightmare, one wakes her abruptly and sends her sobbing into Lena’s arms, who comes to check on her. It takes several long minutes for her anguish to pass, but when she calms, Kara diverts attention from her tears by asking if Lena ever met the princess.

“No,” Lena says softly. “Not exactly. But I did see her, once.”

When Kara prods, desperate for a distraction, Lena explains how once, when she was nine, there had been a grand parade to celebrate the Tsar’s birthday. The entire royal family had ridden by in a motorcade, and Lena had taken one glimpse at the youngest princess before darting forward with a nicked flower in her hand. She’d dodged between guards and called out the princess’ name, and when their eyes met, the princess gave her the most radiant smile Lena had ever seen before or since.

She confesses, then, that some nights she still dreams of that day, and the smile she received.

Kara swears Lena tells her story so well she can almost feel herself there too. When Lena urges her to lean into it, to add the memory to her own story, Kara begins to tell it again, from her own perspective.

How it had been too hot, and her dress collar too tight. It made her itch, but she’d only waved to the crowds as expected. She talks of catching sight of a ragged girl almost her age– how even dirty and threadbare, she’d envied freedom of the girl’s trousers.

How to her surprise the girl had darted forward, a flower in her hand appearing from nowhere, and dodged between vigilant guards nearly unseen, until she’d gotten almost close enough to catch up with the car. But instead of reaching out to climb aboard, as Kara assumed she might, the girl had stopped short, and bent into a deep bow, presenting Kara with a plain but perfect daisy.

Kara had smiled, and pulled an equally dazzling grin to the lips of the urchin girl. The car had pulled away to be swallowed by the crowds further ahead, but she had kept her eyes on that girl until she was out of sight, and had hoped against hope that they would one day meet again.

When she finishes, Lena is stunned and silent. Under the shocked stare, Kara realizes the details she’d echoed that Lena hadn’t shared– the trousers, the bow, the flowers… the lingering gaze that had filled Lena’s belly with butterflies.

Certainty hits them both at the same time. Kara can barely breathe under the weight of it, and almost bursts into tears when Lena shoots to her feet.

“Lena, wait! I swear I–”

But Lena doesn’t leave. She steps in front of Kara, staring with wide eyes before lowering onto one knee, head bowed and hand clasped against her heart.

“Your Majesty.”

—-

The next morning, Cat Grant visits them for tea. As they sit, Kara learns what happened after the parade traveled on that day. How Kara’s mother, Alura, had seen the exchange between the two girls, and how wide her daughter’s smile had been. How Alura had asked her lady-in-waiting, Cat, to locate the girl, and bring her to the palace to be Kara’s handmaiden and playmate.

Of course Lena would need training and lessons before she could be presented, so she had lived some time with tutors at the Grant Manor, meeting Cat only rarely, accounting for Lena’s lack of recollection (she remembers her tutors, but not Cat Grant). But the coup and the family’s execution had ended those prospects for Lena before they could begin. Lena had returned to the streets, head full of new knowledge and personal experience that the ruling class weren’t all heartless monsters.

“It seems you two found your way back together after all,” Cat remarks with a final sip of her tea. “If you should still desire to study, Lena, I will sponsor your tuition to any university you desire.”

For now, Cat simply takes them shopping. She sets Jack up with suits and a tuxedo for the ballet. Kara accepts any dress that Cat thrusts at her, but Lena seems out of her element. It’s too opulent, too rich, and the dresses are so light against her skin she feels naked.

In the end, she too walks out with trousers and blouses, which Jack teases her about mercilessly. She earns stares on the street, but Kara doesn’t know if it’s because the sight of a woman in trousers is so uncommon, or because Lena is simply breathtaking.

When it comes time for the ballet, Kara expects to find Lena waiting in a tuxedo as sharp as Jack’s, but Kara finds herself the first of them to be ready. Jack joins her minutes later, and they watch in simultaneous stunned silence as Lena descends the stairs in a beautiful gown, a rich green velvet that makes her look regal and imposing. But her features are uncertain until she catches Kara’s eye, and finds a dazzled smile staring up at her, at which point her chest and neck blooms in a crimson blush.

They spend the ballet sitting too close together, hands clasped tightly together as they sit in Cat’s box and stare at the Grand Duchess Astra. Neither of them are aware of the dark glower of a familiar face staring up from the orchestra below.

Astra recognizes Kara immediately the moment Cat announces her, confirmed by the necklace Astra had once given her twin sister, now hanging around Kara’s neck. They both fall together in a cloud of tears and embraces. Lena and Cat slip away to grant them privacy, and Cat watches as Lena’s features slowly fall.

“She’s gone,” Lena remarks softly.

“Don’t be absurd,” Cat chides. “She’s just on the other side of the curtain.”

“She’s a princess. And I– I’m just…” Lena’s mind fills with the curses and shouts that had dogged her entire life. Trash. Gutter rat. Thief. Bastard. Whorespawn.

Cat regards her carefully, and then slips Lena an old creased letter from her purse. “It took me some time to track this down. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I visited Astra when I did, before the coup.”

“What is it?” Lena asks.

Cat scoffs. “I’m certain the tutors I hired informed me you’d learned to read in three languages before you disappeared into the wind. Why don’t you take a stab at that.”

Lena unfolds it, and begins to read the contents of the letter. It’s a mix of situational reports, mindless gossip, and speculation, but the final paragraph catches Lena’s eye.

In her final letter to me, Elizabeta has written that she has delivered of me a daughter. I am told the girl has dark hair and green eyes, and has a smile like the sun. In the year since, I have received no further word, and I fear the worst. I have dispatched men to search for them both, but to no avail. How could there be, when we have no details to search with but her name:

Lena.

She shakes her head. “I don’t understand.”

“This letter was written by Count Lionel, to a cohort in the imperial army. It, and the birth records I tracked down before the fall, confirms that you are the daughter of Count Lionel Luthor. The search he details here constitutes his claim on you.”

Lena blinks as the paper starts to tremble in her shaking fingers. “What does this mean?”

“It means you are of noble blood,” Cat tells her plainly, “and that while a commoner may no longer associate with the princess… You can.”

—-

Cat’s prediction holds true: Lena and Kara barely spend a moment out of each other’s sight. Astra is more than agreeable to formalizing Lena’s position and her inheritance of Lionel’s rights and titles, and Kara insists that Lena be presented to the world alongside her.

A press conference is arranged in short order, and during the chaos on the day of, Lex finds his opening. He slips into the decadent townhome, blending easily with the mix of staff and reporters and security. He finds Lena and Kara sharing a quiet moment together in the solarium, calming each other’s nerves before they face the press.

Lena bolts to her feet in recognition and fear, planting herself between him and Kara, who rises more slowly with confusion in her features. Her hand touches softly against the small of Lena’s back; Lena’s arm extends to one side, corralling Kara to stay behind her.

“What are you doing here?” Lena demands.

“I’ve come to bring you home, comrade,” Lex returns smoothly. “You have been sorely missed in the motherland.”

Lena shakes her head. “I am home.”

She doesn’t mean the opulent house around them, or even Paris– wherever Kara is, Lena is home.

Lex doesn’t intend to give her a choice. He grabs her by the arm and pulls her to him. Lena knows how to take care of herself, but the skirts make it hard for her to move, and when a gun cocks in Lex’s hand, Lena freezes.

He aims directly at Kara’s head where she’s frozen mid-stride in an effort to help Lena. Her eyes go wide and glassy at the dark barrel bearing down on her. Her breath comes quicker and quicker, shortening with every inhale.

On the other side of the trigger, Lex smirks at her. “The false princess… Although, I admit you do resemble her.”

“Stop!” Lena cries. “Don’t hurt her please. I’ll go with you, just let her go, she won’t stop you.”

“Lena–” Kara gasps. “No!”

“I have no interest in bargains,” Lex says. “I cannot suffer the princess to live.”

Lena shakes her head. “Why? She hasn’t done anything!”

“Not yet. Nor did she or her family do anything to help our people while we starved and died in the streets!”

Lena scowls. “Yeah? And what’s changed there?” She wrenches herself free, almost. Lex manages to keep hold of her wrist, but Lena glares at him without fear. “My belly didn’t fill when the Tsars were murdered. I was just as cold as I was the night before and the night after.”

“You know nothing–”

“Face it, Lex! Russia is no better than it was. She traded one autocracy for another– the only thing that’s changed is that now YOU’RE in power. That’s all you ever cared about.”

Lex’s grip turns bruising, causing Lena to gasp in pain. “I see you learned much from those pretentious scholars.”

Lena blinks. “How do you know about that.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t keep track of my bastard baby sister?” Lex pulls Lena closer. “Did you think I would stand by and watch as she was welcomed to the court that cast my family to the streets?”

“You’re…?”

“Yes,” Lex hisses. “Our father died in disgrace, and yet they would take you, a bastard from the gutter into their arms. It was unconscionable. That was when I knew it was time to strike.”

Fighting tears, Lena renews her struggle. “You murdered an entire family– started a war– because you were jealous?”

“They believed themselves gods!” Lex shouts. “They would have seen Russia wither to nothing if it meant keeping their grip on our throats! I have liberated us!”

“You’re insane– augh!” Lena’s growl stops with a sharp cry, as Lex whips the butt of his pistol against her skull. The cry snaps Kara out of her fear, and the world refocuses around her. She sees Lena sag, staggering when Lex tugs her into his chest and traps her there with an arm of steel tight around her shoulders.

Kara takes a step forward, but pulls back when the gun returns to aim directly at her forehead. Heart pounding, she forces herself to look away from the barrel, instead locking her gaze on Lena, still struggling to regain her senses.

She swallows thickly.

“I know my family made mistakes,” Kara pleads, lifting her hands placatingly. “I don’t intend on repeating them. I am no threat to you or to Russia, and Lena certainly isn’t. Please– you don’t have to do this.”

Lex pauses, his frame relaxing slightly. “I don’t have to do this,” he echoes. “Funny.”

His finger settles on the trigger.

“That’s what you said the first time I killed you.”

Lena launches herself at the gun before he can fire, sending his shot wide. Kara’s entire body flinches from the flash of combustion, the zing of the bullet that sinks into a wooden beam off to her right. But Lena folds hers around the gun itself, controlling its line of fire as she struggles to take possession of it.

The struggle ceases entirely when a second gunshot cracks through the solarium.

Kara screams.

Lena staggers.

“No!” Lex cries. Drawn by the first gunshot, guards finally spill into the solarium, wresting Lex away from Lena. The gun clatters to the ground at Lena’s feet, its muzzle glistening with blood.

Lena collapses, and Kara drops to her knees beside her, giving no thought to their finery even as blood pools beneath them both.

Kara can barely breathe through the flashbacks pressing against her eyelids: suddenly Lena has joined her in Yekaterinburg, and Kara watches as her lifeblood joins that of Kal, her mother, her father… even her dog, Krypto.

But when Lena lifts a trembling hand to Kara’s cheek, the warm gloss of blood grounding her in the present.

“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?” Lena coughs. “Kara–”

“Save your breath, Lena, please. There are doctors, they can help you…”

Lena smiles with paling lips. “You’ve become a part of my story. I– I’m so glad it ended this way.”

Kara tightens her grip sharply, scoldingly. “It’s not over. Not by a long shot. We still have happily ever after.”

“I– found you. Think– that qualifies.”

“Lena–”

“Kara!” Astra rushes into the room, entourage in tow.

Kara looks up with streaming eyes, hand clamped tight around Lena’s slackening fingers.

“Please, Aunt Astra. We have to help her, there must be something–” Her voice cracks, and a sob heaves from her chest. “I can’t lose her too!”

—

Hope doesn’t return for days. Lena lingers on the brink of life, stubborn even at death’s door. Doctors attend to her day and night, and Kara doesn’t leave her side but for the time it takes to refresh herself. But then, finally, the doctors give their final prognosis: Lena will survive.

The damage is great, but Lena is stronger, and motivated–Kara suspects– by spite and sheer cussedness. After all, if the streets of St. Petersburg weren’t enough to kill her, a lousy bullet sure isn’t.

It’s several days more before Lena opens her eyes, but when she finally does, green eyes blink blearily at Kara as she leans forward intently. She gathers Lena’s cool hand in both of her own.

“You’re going to be okay,” Kara promises.

Lena’s brow crinkles with muddled confusion.

“Who…. are you?”

The breath freezes in Kara’s chest as the world slows around her. No… no, no, no not this. Anything but this!

Lena’s features crease into an exhausted smile.

“Too soon?”

Kara chokes on her relief, and punches Lena’s arm indignantly. “Don’t you ever do that to me again! You sick, perverted–!”

“Marry me.”

Kara blinks. “What?”

“Marry me,” Lena rasps again. “Please. I had a whole plan to ask, after the press conference, but I don’t want to risk being interrupted again. Kara Zor-el, Grand Duchess of Russia and queen of my heart– will you marry me?”

Tears burning in her eyes, Kara nods. “Yes, you big dummy. You didn’t think you’d get rid of me so easily did you?”

Lena laughs, then winces in pain. Kara kisses away her grimace, and in a matter of moments they’re both a mess of tears and laughter.

Their happily ever afters surpass that of any fairytale to come before.


End file.
